UPDATED: New Armed Raid on Private Food Club

Armed teams from federal, state and local agencies raided, for the second time in a year, a private food club called Rawesome today near Los Angeles. At least three have been arrested on conspiracy charges related to offering raw milk products to club members. James Stewart, a manager of the club; Victoria Bloch, a Weston A. Price Foundation chapter leader; and Sharon Palmer of Healthy Family Farm. BIZARRE Twist at the end!

MORE over at the new Journal

Subscribers MUST resubscribe there to continue receiving our articles.-Augie

Farmageddon — A New Moovie Premiere

A new movie called Farmageddon is now being released and screened in LA, DC and New York–and we have a four-minute preview below. Kristin Canty, the producer, became so concerned at the government raids on small farms, she decided to capture the heart and heartbreaks of individual cases for the whole country to see.

The Journal has followed state and federal regulatory and enforcement actions since its inception and has posted over 60 stories. I have interviewed many of the victims of these raids and legal actions–all small, family farmers. The Farm War is a secret war– rarely do local, state or national media pick up on these atrocities. Thus, it is important for all those who love real food and farmers to stand up and do their part.

Court Verdict on Manna Storehouse Food Coop; Results of a SWAT-like Team Raid on a Family Mini-Farm

The SWAT-like team raid in December 2008 of a food coop called the Manna Storehouse near LaGrange, Ohio (Lorain County) was heavily covered here at the Journal. Sheriff deputies and agents from Ohio Department of Agriculture and the county health department stormed the home while homeschool was in session with several children and were held at bay in a room for seven hours while agents confiscated food, computers and records. They did not obtain a food service license after it was requested by the health department.

FDA Dragon Slayer Speaks Out on Amish Raw Milk Sting

Attorney Jonathan Emord has brought down FDA eight times in federal court, six on grounds of First Amendment rights, including cases on health claims on dietary supplements. Congressman and Dr. Ron Paul calls Jonathan “a hero of the health freedom revolution” and says “all freedom-loving Americans are in [his] debt . . . for his courtroom [victories] on behalf of health freedom.”  I asked permission to post his article published today at Newswithviews.com and he immediately responded positively. Coincidentally, the rally in support of the Amish family busted was held today on Capitol Hill in D.C. Even a cow was brought in and raw milk from across the state line was enjoyed by all in defiance of FDA’s sting.–Augie

Raw Milk Rally Time—Pack up the Babies and Grab the Old Ladies—It’s Brother Daniel’s Traveling Salvation Show

We reported last week on the Amish family busted by FDA for caring for the cows of others and delivering fresh milk to those that had already bought it. He caused fresh, raw milk to cross the state line—a federal offense. We know this is a violation of personal rights, but I question if this is another form of religious persecution. After all, they believe it is their ministry and life’s mission to provide healthy food to those that hunger for it. It is all so silly–having to spend all this time and energy to tend to these matters–and oh, Daniel and his family has their livelihoods and farming operations majorly dinked–not to mention all those customers that depend on that fresh, wholesome, unprocessed, unadulterated  milk to maintain and restore their health.

FDA Sting on Amish Rainbow Acres in Pennsylvania

Stepping across state lines to purchase raw milk is a federal offense already– even if it is legal in both states. The FDA is using this Amish family to prove their point. I think it might be time to start calling all these busts on families that produce fresh, nutritious, unprocessed milk to those that need it to maintain their health– religious persecution. – Augie

A new resource called Finding Your Safe Local Raw Milk  is an instantly downloadable $7 ePaper to help you find dairies in your area quickly. Read more about the $7 ePaper.

Yesterday’ story was on the FDA-led SWAT-style 80 man army storming a health supplement business in Oregon. Our story tonight on the Amish FDA sting was in the Washington Time yesterday.

A yearlong sting operation, including aliases, a 5 a.m. surprise inspection and surreptitious purchases from an Amish farm in Pennsylvania, culminated in the federal government announcing this week that it has gone to court to stop Rainbow Acres Farm from selling its contraband to willing customers in the Washington area.

The product in question: unpasteurized milk.

It’s a battle that’s been going on behind the scenes for years, with natural foods advocates arguing that raw milk, as it’s also known, is healthier than the pasteurized product, while the Food and Drug Administration says raw milk can carry harmful bacteria such as salmonella, E. coli and listeria.

“It is the FDA’s position that raw milk should never be consumed,” said Tamara N. Ward, spokeswoman for the FDA, whose investigators have been looking into Rainbow Acres for months, and who finally last week filed a 10-page complaint in federal court in Pennsylvania seeking an order to stop the farm from shipping across state lines any more raw milk or dairy products made from it.

The farm’s owner, Dan Allgyer, didn’t respond to a message seeking comment, but his customers in the District of Columbia and Maryland were furious at what they said was government overreach.

“I look at this as the FDA is in cahoots with the large milk producers,” said Karin Edgett, a D.C. resident who buys directly from Rainbow Acres. “I don’t want the FDA and my tax dollars to go to shut down a farm that hasn’t had any complaints against it. They’re producing good food, and the consumers are extremely happy with it.”

Read the full story in the Times. (and the many comments)

Take this FDA!

A word about this “dangerous” substance called fresh, whole unprocessed milk (targeted to be banned nationally by HHS/FDA/CDC by 2020)

A new resource called Finding Your Safe Local Raw Milk  is an instantly downloadable $7 ePaper to help you find dairies in your area quickly. Read more about the $7 ePaper.

FDA: Illegal for Individuals to Cross State Lines to Get Raw Milk

Federal Raw Milk Suit: FDA Answers the Judge

by Pete Kennedy, Esq.

In an unsurprising response to questions submitted to it by a federal judge, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has asserted that any commercial transaction involving the transport of raw milk for human consumption across state lines is subject to the agency’s jurisdiction and is illegal. It is now a matter of public record that, in FDA’s view, even individual consumers crossing state lines to purchase raw milk and bringing the milk back to their home state to consume it are violating the law.

Read all about it:

http://farmtoconsumer.org/fda-answers-judge-kennedy.htm

How the New Federal Food Safety Law Affects Farms and Food

Here is attorney Gary Cox’s analysis of the new Food Safety Control law. –Augie

Recent Food Safety Legislation – Part 1

By David G. Cox 

In November 2010, the U.S. Senate passed Senate Bill 510, the so-called “Food Safety Modernization Act” (the Act).  On December 21, the House voted to pass the Senate version of the bill, House Resolution 3082, which was signed into law by President Obama later that month.  

So, how exactly does Act affect the majority of small farmers and food producers?  Beginning at Section 6101 of H.R. 3082, the Act generally amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and expands the authority of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate “articles” of food.  Specifically, the Act, in part, provides for the following: 

(1)   It narrows the definition of “facility” that must register with FDA under the Act yet eases the conditions under which FDA may “suspend” a facility’s registration status;

Troubled Waters: Death of the Lakes from Toxic Wastes Used as Farm Fertilizers

I am reposting Part 1 of Death of the Lakes by author David Michael. Part 1 focuses on Grand Lake in Celina and St. Mary’s Ohio. But this situation is escalating in all parts of the U.S. Part 2 is coming by Friday, according to David Michael, and it will cover the law suits, deaths and illnesses, politics and corruption about the spreading of the sludge.–Augie

Human illnesses and animal deaths have occurred recently from neurotoxins secreted by a heavy slime of blue and green algae floating on Ohio’s largest lake—Grand Lake St. Mary’s (Grand Lake) in Auglaize and Mercer Counties. This is a lake that has been deteriorating for decades, but especially so in the past 10 years as factory farms have sprung up all over the area, and more are being built.

A high concentration of factory farms and the application of composted manure from CAFO (confined animal feeding operations) manure and sewage treatment sludge (humanure, now called biosolids—a mixture of concentrated human excrement and industrial discharges) is spreading toxic and infectious substances on farmlands close by and in the watershed. CAFOs in the watershed area account for 3 million chickens; while sewage sludge spreading is permitted on 8800 Ohio farmlands—several close to the edge of Grand Lake.

Continue to the original story and comments here at the Journal. Be looking forward to Part 2 on Friday. Subscribe for the update!

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas—Farm and Food Safety Controls, Codex, and ‘New Dietary Ingredients’

Before the story behind the story, another farm fresh raw milk bust yesterday morning about 9 A.M. when a farmer was apprehended and detained while driving a truck. He was delivering a variety of foods to multiple drop off sites, to be delivered to private members that paid in advance for the foods.  This has deprived them of their food they depend on to feed their families.

The Grinch that Stole Christmas Dinner has appeared again as in other pre-dawn raids with gun toting folks. I received a message from the coordinator of Hartmann Farms Host Sites in Minnesota. Minnesota should be the target state before the Intl Raw Milk Conference in St. Paul occurs. Join the Minnesota ARMi and surrounding states. Get the word out– short link to this post is  http://wp.me/phmll-1kY .This is the third such bust in as many months in Minnesota alone. Here was the message this morning: